HAMPTON — The Virginia agency responsible for marine regulations will research crab pot devices in order to protect a vulnerable species of turtle in the Chesapeake Bay. Diamondback terrapins are a vulnerable species in the Commonwealth.
Tara Zuardo, senior advocate campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity, said recreational crab pots tend to be in the habitats of the terrapins. The Virginia Marine Resources Commission voted to research a possible rule requiring a device on recreational crab pots that allow diamondback terrapin turtles to escape.
Those pots, she explained, drown adult terrapins and lead to local extinctions of terrapin populations. A bycatch reduction device, as it’s called, is a slit in a crab pot that allows adult turtles to escape.
“The species is in significant decline right now,” she continued. “Unfortunately, activities like crab pot fishing kind of predisposes them to significant and rapid decline, because it takes so many of the mature males. They aren’t large enough to kind of escape those openings of the crab pots.”
The commission rejected a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity and other conservation groups to require the device on all crab pots, both recreational and commercial.
Researchers estimate there are more than 75,000 recreational crab pots in the Commonwealth. Zuardo said, despite the commission’s vote on their petition, she is hopeful the commission will create a regulation for recreational crab pots, which could potentially help local crab fishers, too.
“We had some indications from fishermen that it increases their crab haul, simply because there are studies indicating that, if left in there long enough, some of the terrapins will start to bite off the crabs’ legs,” she explained. “So that can affect crab catch.”
Maryland has a requirement for recreational crab pots to use the escape device to help diamondback terrapin populations.
